To Need and Love
by leprekan187
Summary: Hermione Malfoy needs to learn her footing against her old friend, Draco is terrified she will leave him. Harry is deranged with the possibility of losing Hermione to Draco.


the song is andy griggs - she needs me.

The sun was setting along the golden horizon. A large magnificent house stood blocking the silhouette of a young distressed girl. Winter was quickly descending on them and it would be a violent one.  
>Hermione didn't even bother to brace herself for the icy wind as it hit her tear stained face. She had had enough of the fakeness. It was killing her. This was an insult to her intelligence, her loyalty, and her state of mind and she would not stand for it. She walked slowly down the large steps in front of her house.<br>She saw the sun setting and she sighed as she crossed the lawn and sat on the small creek bank. She had once loved the magic of the place. The way the water rushed elegantly around the bend and over the slippery rocks. The warming charm enveloped her in a comforting cocoon.  
>Ever since she had been married this had been her sanctuary. All of the flowers were magical and all were potion ingredients, therefore each had a glow of a different color to light the stream. The all held their own potent aroma of their pending death. The scent hit her nose and her tears flowed without restraint.<br>She felt her Gryffindor bravery wane away with the rising moon. She hated feeling like this. No one could understand. They all claimed that they were just doing what was best for her, as if they knew better than she.  
>She sobbed until she heard a soothing cry; the cry of a phoenix. Harry was searching for her. He would never find her. Not that she cared. He could try all he wanted. Her sanctuary was just that, no one other than a Malfoy could find it. She was invisible to him. Only a Malfoy could appreciate the feelings she held in her heart, the feeling of ultimate betrayal and feeling of protecting her small family. They knew where she was and did not bother her.<br>She had been a Malfoy for only four months. She had just announced the arrival of Lucius' first heir. She had begun her family and she had tried to explain her happiness to her friends. But as usual they said that she was Imperused; that they could take care of her, that none of this would have to be known once they had removed the curse. She had yelled and told them to never come back. That she didn't need them, that they needed her. She sighed when she saw Draco's reflection in the water. She didn't bother with words. Her tears returned with a vengeance. She wrung her wedding ring on her finger. She took it off and red the inscription out loud.  
>'A true Malfoy loves without regret.'<br>Draco sighed and sat next to her. She looked at him and saw his eyes glistening and burning for her. He looked at her with all the love he could muster.  
>"If you want out I'll understand." He whispered. He turned and stared out into space at the creek turning around the bend. He knew this day would come, he had just hoped in vain that it wasn't so soon. Not when he just found out he would be a dad.<br>"If you truly love someone you have to let them go, and if they come back then it was meant to be, if not … then it wasn't." he muttered. Hermione looked back at him to see the first tear roll down him cheek. She had never seen Draco cry and it pained her to know she was the reason he was. She placed the ring back on her finger and watched the gold and silver metal twined melt into a solid band. She felt her Slytherin stubbornness and Gryffindor bravery return to her. She had everything that mattered to her.

She smiled and reached out to his hand. He jumped at her touch. She placed his hand on her still flat stomach. His hand automatically formed to her skin.  
>"It is meant to be." She whispered looking Draco dead in the eye. "I meant what I said. I don't need them, they need me. Now they have lost me. And they will never get me back." Her voice never wavered "I am here to stay. I have no regrets in loving you. I am where I belong."<br>The trees swayed in the late November wind. Draco looked at her, eyes so full of love and devotion; she knew he loved her with all his heart.  
>"Are you sure?" he asked as he pulled back from her slowly. She had to be sure. He would allow nothing less. He couldn't, she deserved everything in the world and more.<br>"Till death do us part. And if you die first then I will remain faithful to you until I join you. I am under a spell." Draco's face was suddenly contorted with rage. "The spell of love. It's not a spell you can cast it is one that you create." She added as she watched his enraged face turn back into love. She reached up and laid her hand on his cheek. "I love you Draco Malfoy. Voldemort didn't stop me and I sure as hell won't let Harry Potter stop me. I am yours Draco. You are stuck with me." Hermione said smiling at her loving husband.  
>"Come on. We need to get Harry to leave. I'll take care of him if you want me to Mione. I won't let him hurt you anymore." Draco said standing and holding his hand out to Hermione.<br>She took his hand and stood before she engulfed him into one of her bone crushing hugs. Draco smiled. She was his. And he was hers.  
>He loved her with all he was. He knew she deserved better and that she shouldn't settle. But he loved her and he was ecstatic that she had chosen him.<p>

**She thinks I walk on water ****  
><strong>**she thinks I hung the moon ****  
><strong>**she tells me every morning, ****  
><strong>**"They just don't make men like you"**

They walked back to the manor hand in hand. Hermione loved the way that the moonlight played on Draco's face. She knew that the brave dwell in Gryffindor but she believed that Slytherin had a select few that were braver than Gryffindors. She had told him this many times and he had just scoffed at her saying that he only fought for what he believed in and for what he loved. Draco smiled when he looked at her. He knew that look. He had seen it so many times. She was so stubborn he was surprised that she had not been put in Slytherin some days.  
><strong><br>****She thinks I've got it together ****  
><strong>**She swears I'm as tough as nails ****  
><strong>**But I don't have the heart to tell her ****  
><strong>**She don't know me that well **

****Hermione scowled when she saw Harry run up to her. She braced herself for the attack she knew was coming.  
>"Where in the sodding hell have you been Hermione!? I have been looking for you since you stormed out!" he yelled, he looked enraged and crazy. "And what the hell are you doing still with him?!"<br>Hermione opened her mouth to speak but Draco cut her off.  
>"Hermione is her own person. If you cannot accept me then leave. I will set up wards against you and the Weasleys. I will not tolerate you harassing my wife, the mother of my child. She asked you here in hope of you understanding her."<br>Draco was seething. As far as he was concerned Harry was still his enemy, and the fact that he thought Hermione was under a curse simply made him seethe in rage and hatred for one person.  
>He stopped breathing hard when Hermione placed a hand on his chest and took a step towards Harry.<br>"Harry, what do I have to do to make you believe that I am not under a curse? What do I have to say or do to make you believe me, to trust me and my decisions that you keep second guessing?"  
>"Come home." Harry replied simply. Like it was the answer to all her problems.<br>"I AM home Harry." Hermione sighed with a heavy heart. Harry would never understand. She knew that now.  
>"No, you are not. This is just part of the curse. Come back with me. I'll get you help. I'll make sure that you don't have to remember any of this. I promise everything will be back to normal Hermione. Please?"<br>Hermione looked at Harry strangely. Draco noticed. He panicked. She might just leave him.  
>"Harry go, leave and don't bother coming back." She said quietly.<p>

"Baby?" he said making her head snap back to his. Her eyes were shinning with unshed tears.  
>"I am sorry. I have to do this. Let me do this for me." Hermione whispered harshly. She had to stand for herself. Like she always had.<br>"I am staying here, Harry. I will never stop being a Malfoy just so that everything will be right in your little world. Now you can either leave willingly or I can have you removed." She said the last few words with a tone that chilled Draco's blood and froze him to the bone.  
>"Fine, Mione. I will leave for now. But I will be back. Just think of what Ron would say if he saw you with this git. Someone will be back for you I promise, I promise you." He added before desperating into the cold darkness that had swallowed the Malfoy grounds.<br>Draco looked at Hermione almost afraid to speak.  
>"I thought you were going to leave me…" he trailed off as she closed the little distance that was left between them.<br>"I just told you that I wouldn't. I will never leave you." She said placing a gentle hand on his cold cheek. "Never. I meant what I said."  
>"Are you sure Mione? I just want you to be happy." He muttered sheepishly.<br>"Why does everyone think that I am not happy? I am. I have never been happier in all my life. I promise you Draco." Hermione said leaning into her husband for a kiss.  
>"I just want you to be happy. And I am afraid that once I accept that you are happy that you will want to leave me and that you will leave…"<br>"I will never leave you baby. You are stuck with me. Come one. We need to get to sleep, it's getting late." She said softly kissing him.  
>She took his hand into hers and they walked the rest of the way to the large manor.<br>Once inside Draco let her hand go.  
>"You go on ahead. I need to speak to father about the wards."<br>"Ok don't take too long, you know I can't sleep without you." She added with a sly smile. He knew what she really wanted. She never could sleep without it now.  
>He smirked and nodded before walking to his fathers study.<br>He knocked on the dark cherry wood door.

"Enter" he heard his father call from the depths of the room.  
>He did just that, he saw his father staring into the slowly dying flames of the fire and nursing a glass of firewhisky.<br>"Father, I want to add Potter and the Weasley's to our wards Minus Ginny and George."  
>"Very well." Lucius said draining the last of his whisky before flicking his wand. "There you are son. They are added." He said standing and walking over to his drink cabinet and poured himself another glass of whiskey.<br>"Thank you, it is late. Hermione is waiting on me. Good night father."  
>"Good night son," Lucius said sitting down at his desk and picking up the document he needed to read for the new heir rights.<br>Draco left the study and made his way to his and Hermione's room. He opened the door to the room silently, for he knew that she was already asleep with his pillow clutched in her embrace.  
>He chuckled at the sight. His pillow was in the death grip of her arms. He changed into his night clothes before wrestling a non-sleeping Hermione for his pillow. They had done this every night that she went to bed before him. She giggled as he began to tickle her into submission.<br>He had won. He smiled as he tossed his pillow behind his head and lay down next to Hermione who then curled up almost on top of him using his chest as her pillow and her actual pillow behind her so she was less likely to roll away from him. He smiled as he kissed her forehead and slowly let sleep take him prisoner. He knew he was the luckiest damned bastard in the world and he loved every minute of it.

**She don't know how much I need her ****  
><strong>**She don't know I'd fall apart ****  
><strong>**Without her kiss, without her touch ****  
><strong>**Without her faithful, loving arms ****  
><strong>**She don't know that it's all about her ****  
><strong>**She don't know I can't live without her ****  
><strong>**She's my world, she's my everything ****  
><strong>**And she thinks she needs me**


End file.
